Happy 2nd Birthday Zoë Maxine!

Our little girl is 2!  I can't believe it.  It's really hard to imagine that two years have gone by in what seems like a blink of an eye.  She is an amazing little girl and I'm so thankful for all of the joy she's brought to our family.  We are so very thankful that with her rough start she is a healthy, growing, glowing little girl and perfect in every way (except for that pesky swallowing issue...). 

 

I'm TWO!

We had her 2nd birthday party on Saturday and were surrounded by lots of family and friends.  It was a rainbow theme and I had a great time decorating and Chris did a good job of following directions and doing whatever I asked him to do.  :)  

CHEESE!

Zoë's recent accomplishments:
She can jump with two feet off the ground, she can go potty in the toilet 80% of the time.

She can name all of her friends from preschool and outside of school.

She eats like a horse, seriously.  She eats anything and everything and while she's motivated by a good treat, she doesn't whine and beg for them over good food.

She loves to chase ANYONE who will play with her around the kitchen in laps, over and over and over again.

She's a crazy dancer, bouncer, mover.  She goes through crazy bouts of hyperactivity that can only be attributed to her toddler-hood.

She also is LOUD.  Chris said the other day, "when did she become so noisy?!" When we couldn't have a simple conversation across the dinner table.  Even her Teta said a similar thing on the phone the other day.  She mumbles and screeches and just is generally talking all the time.

She can now climb onto the couch and dinner table bench which is thrilling to not have to lift her up whenever she wants it.

She loves to play make believe and it's impressive the things she'll try to accomplish with her baby and other stuffed friends.  She held baby up against the wall today so she could "go potty", and kept checking in with her every 5 minutes so she could go again.  She loves to cook with her kitchen and play food and absolutely LOVES to have tea parties with whomever will play with her.

Tea party with Daddy and Uncle Drew.

Time for a cupcake.  

YUM!

Endearments:

When Zoë wants you to come with her or follow her, she slaps her thigh and says "come, come",  just like we do to get Fiona to come and follow us.  It's adorable.

She's extremely concerned with everyone having something when she has it (treats, for example), and will go through the list after we hand her one and say, "Mommy?  Daddy?  Me?  Fowo?  Joe?" to make sure everyone has it.  Although, on the other hand, if she doesn't want to share her snack, she'll point and tell us, "own" (get your own), which is just as endearing.

She also loves to give treats in the morning to Fiona and Joe when she and Daddy are leaving the house.

She's extremely affectionate and a great hug and kiss giver.  I love her snuggles when we sit on the couch to watch a movie.

Tackling and body slamming are a few of her favorite things to do in the living room, and enjoys tackling someone (BOOM!), pulling them back up again, and then repeating the process.

Counting in the grocery store "1, 2, 3 GO!" so I then push her really fast down whatever aisle we're in is also a favorite.

We signed up for a gymnastics class once a week at The Little Gym and are so surprised and pleased with how well she's done.  Being the clingy girl she is with new people and new situations, we figured she would not leave our side to do any of the activities during class, but within 10 minutes she was off on her own with us trailing behind her.  I can't wait each week for a new class and I know she's going to learn how to do some amazing things!

First day of "'nastics"

Zoë and Grandpa

Enjoying opening presents.

New gymnastics gear from Teta and Uncle Jed.

She loves the bag as much as she loves the gift.  :)

Things that drive us bonkers:

She can't identify her colors.  I'm really not sure how such a smart girl in lots of other ways can't accomplish this, but she is SO inconsistent and *most* everything is still considered "geen".

She's regressed in falling asleep.  Every single night she cries when we put her down or yells, "Mooooooooommy!  Daaaaaaaaaaaaddy!" for a good 10-20 minutes.  We've tried different bedtimes to no avail.  It makes me nervous to be trying her new big girl bed soon and that that might not go as smoothly as we thought it would...

She is REALLY excited about her new room, though, and loves to play on her new mattress.  We're going to get my childhood frame from my parents to put it on, though, as making the bed is going to be difficult for me throughout the next few months.  :)

Happy happy family.

Birthday girl stats.

We love, love, love her and can't wait to see what this next year holds for our family and our growing girl!

Christmas 2014 (a little belated)

We had a fabulous Christmas with both families this year.  It was wonderful to have Connor back home during his break and Jed and Angela came up for a little over a week, too.  Zoë knew all of their names (something I was extremely happy about since we had been practicing) as soon as they walked in the door.

Loves her Daddy

We made sugar cookies, played with some boyfriends, and had a great holiday overall.  

Really excited about her big girl undies.

Our biggest project was spending a week potty training.  We started the second Sunday of winter break, made Zoë a chart, and began by taking her to the potty every 30 minutes.  After the first day, she would refuse to go when the timer went off, so we decided just to ask her ALL. THE. TIME.  The first few days were ok, a few accidents every day, which was to be expected.  I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I kind of expected her to be potty trained by the end of the three day intensive, stay-at-home potty training window.  Well, she wasn't.  The reminding her every 20 minutes is EXHAUSTING.  She earned a lot of stickers, but definitely needed the reminding and had an accident or two every day regardless of the reminding.  She'd start to pee and then immediately yell "potty", but it would be too late.  Her most endearing quality during this training period is that she wants to line all of her Daniel Tiger figures up on the bathtub to watch her go potty.  This is also super frustrating because it takes FOREVER to make sure that they're all lined up properly and she'll throw a hissy fit if they're not perfect.  :)

We're doing MUCH better now with the potty training.  At daycare she still wears a diaper for most of the day, but it's dry usually, and as soon as she wakes up from her nap she's back in her undies again.  This weekend she's done a much better job of asking to go potty when she has to go and doesn't always have to be prompted to go.  If she's busy playing she can't always be convinced to leave her toys to go, but usually that just means there's an entourage in the bathroom with her.  Still a few accidents every once and a while, but it's looking up.

We're going to be transitioning her into her big girl bed in her new big girl room in a few weeks, but have to wait until her new room is a little more finished to do that.  I can't believe how big she's getting!

Making sugar cookies with Uncle Jed and Teta. 

Santa brought her a new dress up box with lots of fun new dress up clothes!  She insisted on putting as many on as possible at one time.

Zoë slept with some of her Christmas presents she loved them so much...

Playdate with the boyfriends!

Noon Year's Eve at the Covington Library.

The Holiday Season and a (Failed) Swallow Study

So, we started out the holiday season by going and getting our tree.  Zoë was a good helper despite wanting to be held almost the entire time.  But, we found a good one.  :)  We decorated the next day and Zoë even helped...sorta.  She was more interested in taking all of the ornaments out of the box than putting them on the tree.  Next year.  

Helping unpack the ornaments.

Helped with a few...

We went to Snowflake Lane with the Nelson family and while their daughter loved it, Zoë was super tentative and wouldn't be put down to dance or greet any of the people dressed up (in any costume, furry or otherwise).  I still loved it, though, and can't wait until she's past this timid stage.   

At dinner beforehand (top) and then on Snowflake Lane, cautiously watching the dancers to make sure they didn't get too close. 

"I'm cozy" she says as she snuggles with both babies.

Chillin' with her light up wand.

The following week we went to Zoolights at the Point Defiance Zoo with two of Zoë's boyfriends and their families.  It's such a fun tradition for us (Chris and I started going when we were dating) and it was fun to see Zoë really appreciate the lights this year.  Of course, she brought her light up wand Daddy bought her last year.  The only disappointment was that she wouldn't ride the carousel.  She wouldn't even sit on a horse, so we had to get off and watch everybody else ride.  :(

Sitting coyly with Ethan and Griffin.

Would love to know what she's really thinking here.  :)

Enjoying her jammies that match the jammies her baby is wearing.  She sure loves that baby.

 And, onto the Santa adventure.  We went to the Old Cannery in Sumner on a friend's recommendation and the set up there is absolutely incredible.  They had a large screen TV playing movies (Frozen was on when we arrived, Zoë's new favorite) with kid recliners all set up in a circle around it.  She LOVED the recliner and we almost walked away with one but they didn't really have a color that would go in any of the rooms in our house.  Too bad because it was adorable.  They had tons of wintery/holiday displays, a popcorn machine, and coloring stations set up throughout with clipboards so kids could take paper and crayons wherever.  It was genius.  It was a LONG wait in line (we were there 1.5 hours early and it still took another hour to see Santa), but might be more worth it if we went a weekend earlier.  Maybe we'll try it again next year.

Kicking back watching Frozen with her snacks.

Loving the trains.

Hey, these penguins are kinda cute.

Cheese!

 She was ALL for seeing Santa and sitting on his lap right up until the time we walked up to him, of course.  She would not let go of me, and barely let go of my shirt long enough to stand next to Santa and take a second (bribed) candy cane.  He was a great Santa, insisted that I just hold on to her while he talked to her for a while, but no dice.

As close as she got on her own...notice her shoe is off and mom isn't more than two feet away.

Happy as a clam...AFTER Santa (probably because she's eating the candy cane she "earned").

So, I wanted a picture of her sitting on Santa's lap.  Even if she was screaming.  Chris loves me so much that he took her to Southcenter on his Friday off to see if he could get her on that Santa's lap.  And, here is the result.  Next year, right?

Today Zoë had her swallow study to follow up her surgery a few weeks ago.  Chris took her (a 2pm appointment at Seattle Children's, not exactly a convenient appointment to get to) and said while she did a little bit better, the doctor said she's not better enough to take her off thickener.  Apparently she did better with really cold liquids (with ice in them) and when she drank with her head tilted down (from a straw) she did better than when she tipped her head back to drink from a sippy cup.  But, not good enough.  She won't need surgery again, especially since the goo they injected into her throat didn't do anything much for her, but she'll likely need some therapy at Valley Children's Clinic.  We have a follow up next Friday with the surgeon where he'll tell us what our next steps are, but for now, we keep thickening her liquids.  I'm really, really disappointed.  I could see the light at the end of the thickener tunnel and now the light's out again.  :(

Where Did November Go?

Helping Daddy make ice cream for Thanksgiving.

November has been a busy month and I know the next month is only going to get busier!  We've successfully decorated for Christmas (read:  I insisted on ALL of the decorations coming out the morning after Thanksgiving and Chris spent several FREEZING hours outside today finishing the lights on the house) and had a few more hours on our hands this weekend due to our cancelled trip to the Apple Cup in Pullman.  Zoë got really sick right after her surgery, of course, and spent two days snuggling on the couch with us, so we made the responsible decision of not using our tickets (which we're ok about, after watching the game last night).

Waiting before her surgery.

Her surgery went great!  I was a nervous wreck, but Seattle Children's knows what the heck they're doing.  The doctors and nurses were so nice (I really liked the anesthesiologist) and we were in and out of the hospital within five hours (eating at Burgermaster by noon!).  The surgeon didn't find anything huge wrong with her throat, but injected the magical gel that should buy her some time to figure out how to swallow within the next few months.  She has a follow up swallow study in just two weeks, so we'll see for sure if it helps.  We've noticed this weekend when we give her drinks from our cups that she is doing much better with the thin liquids (no coughing at all!), but are still instructed to thicken until after the swallow study (minus a few tries every once and a while for feedback for the doctor).

Zoê is thankful for...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Chris' parents house and my parents came too!  Lots of fun grandparent time for Zoë that day although she didn't eat much (cold was coming on, already not feeling good).

Thanksgiving dinner with ALL of her grandparents.

Our little turkey.  Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe Zoë is growing so fast.  Every day she knows more and more words and more and more phrases.  It's absolutely crazy.  I'm mourning the fact that I'm losing my baby girl but in awe of her learning and growing into an amazing toddler.

Phrases we've heard come out of her mouth:

"I need this" (pointing to some socks I was folding)

"Bless you"

"Come play"
"Excuse me" (trying to get in your spot, wherever you are sitting or standing)
"Sit, sit"

"Come chase!" (followed by a rousing 50 laps around the fireplace in our house)

And favorite words:

"Fowo" (Fiona)

"Bench" (the kitchen bench)

"Cover" (when she wants her blanket covering her at bedtime or whenever)

Trying on mommy's wedding headband.  The dress is still too big.  ;)

I know Zoë's upcoming birthday is still two months away, but we have a 2-year-old on our hands now.  Her tantrums have become more frequent and much more likely to happen at the drop of a hat.  We had quite the eventful start to our week when the daycare report on a Monday a few weeks ago was "Zoë tackled another child, took her to the ground, and attempted to bite her on the shoulder".  While the mental picture of our feisty red-headed firstborn doing this is pretty darn funny, she has never done anything like it before and it worries me, and makes me feel guilty, of course.  I know all kids go through periods where their behavior HAS to be redirected but, of course, thought we were immune to this particular parenting problem.  This was definitely not a parenting hurdle Chris and I were ready to tackle and has caused me some anguish two weeks ago.  Luckily, she was better behaved throughout the week (despite melting down when toys she was previously playing with were picked up by other kids) and I'm hoping we can curtail any future tackles.

Family pictures, taken by our generous and talented friend Karah.  :)

 We are sure enjoying our little girl and are more than excited to also announce the addition of her little brother, coming in April 2015.  :)  Zoë has NO idea what she's in for and will probably have a hard time sharing mommy, for sure, but every once and a while when I ask her "where is your baby brother?", she'll point to my belly and then give it a gentle kiss.  Awwwwwwwwww.

Someone doesn't want to share mommy and daddy...

Go Cougs!

OK, we're back to being ok about this (mostly because she;s holding baby)